ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at significant markers from the Society’s inception on September 6 1947 over the next fifty years, to 1997. Apart from an early focus on actions surrounding the transfer of Biometrics from ASA ownership to IBS ownership (described in Chapter 7), most of the early decades were concerned with growth, in membership and in the Society’s influence scientifically. Thus, we see the development of various membership categories. In addition to Biometrics, scientific enterprises revolved around meetings, in particular International Biometric Conferences (IBCs) covered more fully in Chapter 9. A brief overview of the growth of regions and national groups is presented. The emergence of some key committees, such as finance, awards funds, and editorial advisory committees is traced, as are the ad hoc committees of the 1990s established in response to the need to position the Society to function in the emerging computer world.
